Priesthood

Lacking funds and concerned about his family, he went home for the funeral, lingering awhile in Waterbury. Then, at the request of the bishop of Hartford, he entered St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. After four years of study, on December 22, 1877, he was ordained in Baltimore’s historic Cathedral of the Assumption by Archbishop (later Cardinal) James Gibbons. A few days later, with his widowed mother present, he offered his first Mass at Immaculate Conception Church in Waterbury.

Fr. McGivney began his priestly ministry on Christmas Day in 1877 as curate at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven. It was the city’s first parish. A new stone church had been built, after the old one burned, on one of New Haven’s finest residential streets, Hillhouse Avenue.

One of the responsibilities of St. Mary’s priests was pastoral care of inmates of the city jail. In a notable case, a 21-year-old Irishman, while drunk, shot and killed a police officer. James (Chip) Smith was tried for first-degree murder in 1881, convicted and sentenced to be hanged. Fr. McGivney visited him daily.

After a special Mass on the day of execution, the priest’s grief was intense. The young offender comforted him: “Fr., your saintly ministrations have enabled me to meet death without a tremor. Do not fear for me, I must not break down now.”

Fr. McGivney worked closely with the young people of St. Mary’s parish, holding catechism classes and organizing a total abstinence society to fight alcoholism. In 1881 he began to explore with various laymen the idea of a Catholic, fraternal benefit society. In an era when parish clubs and fraternal societies had wide popular appeal, the young priest felt there should be some way to strengthen religious faith and at the same time provide for the financial needs of families overwhelmed by illness or death of the breadwinner. He also strove greatly to dissuade Catholic men from joining secret societies that were hostile to the Church and her mission.